Many Americans are campaigning for a raise in the minimum wage. Even more Americans are struggling just to find jobs at any wage.

Yup — those two news items are related.

While trying to present a case for the Massachusetts state legislature to approve a program that provides summer jobs to teens at non-profits and government agencies, an editorial at the Boston Globe accidentally explained why artificially imposed minimum wages kill job opportunities.

I don’t think the Globe even realized it, either:

The program provides money for YouthWorks, which pays the wages of 4,400 low-income teens in eligible cities who work for nonprofits or local government agencies in the summer. The Senate originally proposed the same funding amount as last year, $11.5 million. Level-funding actually means 600 fewer positions, though, because of the rise in the state’s minimum-wage increase to $10 per hour this year and $11 per hour next year.

Maintaining the number of positions would take $13.34 million. But the compromise budget bill lawmakers filed Wednesday night included $10.2 million for the program, which translates into about 1,000 jobs lost.

Wow. Imagine that.

The Boston Globe is notoriously liberal so their support for raising the minimum wage hardly comes as a surprise.